What fantasy author's world would you want to live in?

[Occulus]

In keeping with Nazgul35's thread on science fiction worlds you'd want to live in, this is a similar thread for fantasy dwellers.

Come on, mages, clerics, and warriors all! Where would you want to live?

My personal favorite is Goodkind's world, but I think maybe somewhere nice and remote is the best bet.

[MercutioATC]

1. Heinlein's ...it ain't always pretty, but at least it makes sense...

(as a caveat, not during the "Crazy Years")

[Cat Atomic]

2. I'm going to be totally unoriginal and say Middle Earth, Hobbiton,

Third Age.

[ikojo]

30. Since I am short and have curly hair

I think I'd fit in quite nicely in Hobbiton....

Frodo Baggins for me please!!

[WoodrowFan]

31. I'm a little tall but..

I'm a little tall but I take the Shire. Rosie Cotton was, IMHO, the best looking babe in the whole LOTR series!! Forget the elf chicks, or the warrior girl, thet Hobbit that Sam married was major babeolicious!

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Velgrath

Maybe in the land of Valdemar or among the Tayledras.

[Occulus]

8. Yes, Lackey's world was my

second choice. :) Nice writing, isn't it?

[pfitz59]

42. Lackey's World

I wanna live in a Vale, grow my hair long and have wanton sex in a hot tub... AL DAY LONG!

[Nazgul35]

4. for me it would have to be...

Pern....impressing a bronze dragon and riding thread, not matter how dangerous would appeal to me...plus they also had a more rural standard of living than we are use to....

As to when, definately not during Moreta's ride...who wants to deal with the plauge....

Not during the original colonization, too sad to watch the loss of technology....

definately after Fax gets killed by F'Lair but before the discovery of Avias in the southern continent.....would've been cool to know Ruth and Jaxom....plus, dragon riders have a much more open sexuality than those hidebound holders.....

vaa..vaa..vaa..voom!!!

[shimmergal]

39. Valdemar and Pern are tied for my second choice.

First choice is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover, although I haven't
"visited" it much lately.

[kodi]

5. oh dude, it would be the fella' who wrote the adventures of jack flanders

especially the 4th tower of inverness and moon over morocco....albeit, an acquired taste.

[Fleshdancer]

6. Robert Lundlum - The Bourne Identity.

I love the Bourne series

either that or Heinlen.

[jobycom]

7. Thomas Covenant's Land (friggin memory just went out on author)

Relaxed, earthy kind of place, with talking trees and healing mud.

Terry Goodkind's would be fun if the bastard hadn't gone all preachy in the last few. Lousy writer, good story creator.

Then there's the dark side of me that would want to try my hand in Thieves' World.

[Occulus]

15. I bet there's a reason for that preachiness.

I noticed it as well, but you must admit this was coming- after all, the Order (not to hijack my own thread or anything) is more of an idea than a person or a nation, and as such must be fought by physical as well as philosophical means.

Richard Rahl is fighting for freedom; it's not like he's a close-minded lot. The Imperial Order, on the other hand, more closely resembles our own Religious Right.

In that respect, the preachiness of the last few books was somewhat necessary. This does not mean he should have devoted an entire book to it, as he did in Naked Empire. Let's hope this means he'sdealing with that aspect of the plot completely and finally.

Although, I must say, I did rather like the idea of Nicholas the Slide. Neat.

[jobycom]

17. Bad writing, though

Especially going off for pages at a time on the virtues of work and the evils of socialism (without naming it, of course). It's not even that I disagree with his preaching, so much as it's horrible writing. He could write his own manifesto and get back to the fiction, and I'd be happy. Some of his characters are amongst the most intriguing ever created, and the romance between Richard and Kailen (forgotten spelling) is moving. But his writing is so bad at times that I skim pages, rather than savoring them.

Of course, I keep reading his books, so I guess he does something right.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

19. Thank you!

I've had several discussions with people about Goodkind's works and how they've drifted into preaching about the evils of socalism.
They don't believe me.

[Occulus]

20. I don't think it's socialism he's preaching against.

Think about what the Imperial Order's core philosophy is: the age of men is to replace the age of magic, and the time for it to happen has come. To that end, the Order uses any and all means necessary- including the hypocrisy of the use of magic- to further that goal.

Emperor Jagang is indeed a cruel and heartless ruler, but his ideal is the same as the millions who follow him: a world without magic, upon which he will rule. If Jagang can find magic to make him rule longer, he will, as when he tried to capture the Palace of the Prophets. However, he is correct when he says that the Imperial Order would survive without him, since it exists based on an ideal.

I'm certainly hoping Goodkind is done with the sermons. I think all his readers knew exactly what the Imperial Order represented without spelling it out in Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire.

I think he should write more about the prophecies involved, to be honest. As one of his characters said once, "war draws prophecies like dung draws flies." Maybe he should write a book based on, like, ten seperate prophecies that all wind together.

Although, I must admit... doesn't Richard deserve a break?

[jobycom]

22. No, it was pretty clearly socialism

Especially in Soul of Fire, when Richard first went south. That's when the preaching began. One of Jagang's core beliefs is socialism, and his mentor what-sis-name was even a Marx type figure. Goodkind portrays Jagang as motivated by his desire for a socialist world, and it's the whole reason he is trying to overthrow magic-- to bring about an egalitarian society. Goodkind even uses some of Rush's and Gingrich's straw men to prove how dehumanizing socialism is. In one of his books, he describes Jagang as really an idealist who is just using his cruelty in pragmatic ways to bring about the changes he believes in.

[luckydevi]

43. Yes

Terry Goodkind is anti-socialist

Give your friends this link

http://cgi1.usatoday.com/mchat/20030805003/tscript.htm

"Phoenix, Arizona: What authors do you read yourself?

Terry Goodkind: I think the most important author to read is Ayn Rand"

-from the link

Goodkind is an objectivist

[FloridaJudy]

29. That was the novel that featured the leper, right?

If so, it started out well, but rapidly descended into a Fantasy Franchise.

I actually bought the first novel in the guy's next series. It was over 500 pages long, and ended with "to be continued". Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen could pull off this trick, but they were way too smart to try it.

The fact that this dude somehow *expected* us slobs to wait panting for the next installment was a real turn-off.

He's not THAT good a writer.

[jobycom]

38. Stephen R Donaldson

He wrote two Covenant trilogies. The first was very good. The second was not far behind, and some said it was better. I didn't follow him after that. I think there was a book about mirrors.

If you read fantasy, you get a lot of those to be continueds, because everyone is imitating Tolkein and writing trilogies.

I agree, his writing was not that great. His world was fun, though, and his character was memorable-- a cross between sympathetic, heroic and despicable.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. O'Brian's Jack Aubrey series on the Royal Navy

But only if I can be an Admiral.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. Ursula Leguin's

[CanuckAmok]

11. Vonnegut's Midland City.

Oh, wait...I already do.

[Bridget Burke]

12. Middle Earth or Nehwon

Hobbitton would be a bit too rural for a permanent residence & Lothlorien is beautiful but weird. Rivendell in its prime seems to me the happy medium.

But the less earnest & wholesome adventures of Fafhrd & Gray Mouser occurred in a world that has its attractions: "Sundered from us by gulfs of time and stranger dimensions dreams the ancient world of Nehwon with its towers and skulls and jewels, its swords and sorceries. Nehwon's known realms crowd about the Inner Sea: northward the green-forested fierce Land of the Eight Cities, eastward, the steppe-dwelling Mingol horsemen and the desert where caravans creep from the rich Eastern Lands and the River Tilth. But southward, linked to the desert only by the Sinking Land and further warded by the Great Dike and the Mountain of Hunger, are the rich grainfields and walled cities of Lankhmar, eldest and chiefest of Nehwon's lands. Dominating the Land of Lankhmar and crouching at the silty mouth of the River Hlal in a secure corner between the grainfields, the Great Salt Marsh, and the Inner Sea is the massive-walled and mazy-alleyed metropolis of Lankhmar, thick with thieves and shaven priests, lean-framed magicians and fat-bellied merchants--Lankhmar the Imperishable, the City of the Black Toga."

--from Fritz Leiber (who had apparently read Lord Dunsany)

[Nazgul35]

13. was one of the few who wept...

when I heard he had passed....

God rest you Fritz!!!

Hanging out with Fafhard and the Grey Mouser was in my top ten...

[CrownPrinceBandar]

46. Middle Earth Bump!

[Coldgothicwoman]

14. Robert Jordan!

His 'Wheel of Time' series is fascinating to the point of absurdity! :)

[Supply Side Jesus]

24. Amen for Wheel of Time!

as long as I can be a ashaman, after book 9, I aint down for going insane.

[SOteric]

16. Harry Potter. I could get into that.

[jobycom]

18. The Tolkein of this generation

I think Potter is the next generation of fantasy. King Arthur was the first, Tolkein was the second. Those worlds and formulas have been played to death. Potter's world is next.

And while it is not as classical as Tolkein, the writing is enamoring. She's getting better with each book.

[scarlet_owl]

26. I'll have to agree with you on that one.

Diagon Alley looks all too cool!

[wickerwoman]

21. Stephen King's Midworld/Outworld/Dark Tower/Wherever world

but only if I could kick ass. I wouldn't want to be a farmer somewhere.

I like the twinner concept too- that somewhere in a parallel dimension is another me living a fantasy life and I can cross over now and again but still come back.

If we're including fantasy computer games, I want to live in G.A.R.D.E.N in Final Fantasy 8.

[ArmchairActivist]

23. I've always wanted to try my hand...

... at walking the Pattern beneath the palace in Amber. I've always suspected I could be one of the sons of Oberon... :evilgrin:

Honestly, don't Zelazny's first Chronicles of Amber deserve mention in any catalog of the very best of the genre?

-AA

[La_Serpiente]

25. Anne Rice

Either Book 1 of the Vampire Chronicles, Interview with the Vampire or Book 3 Queen of the Damned

[101 Proof]

27. I was just thinking the same thing...

I'm re-reading the books of the Vampire Chronicles.

[La_Serpiente]

28. awesome

my favourite vampire chronicles novel is Memnoch the Devil. However, I just like the storyline, not so much the setting.

:-) Enjoy

[WoodrowFan]

32. River World, IF

Riverworld, but only if

1) I get to be on the boat.

2) My wife is with me.

[Nlighten1]

33. Weiss and Hickman's

They are the authors of a great deal of the DragonLance series.

[terrya]

34. I'd like to be Gulliver in Lilliput.

No particular reason. I read "Gulliver's Travels" in high school, and just thought that that particular world would be a nice place to live.

[KG]

35. Donaldsons' - The Land.

pure magic.

[jimbo fett]

36. Modesitt's Recluce or Donalson's The Land

[Crowdance]

37. Earthsea

I want to live in a world where folks know that magic is just there, around the corner, beyond that wall. Oh, wait, I think we're already there....

[GreenPartyVoter]

40. Marion Zimmer Bradley's DARKOVER

because it is both sci-fi and fantasy.

Runners up are of course being a Hobbit in Middle Earth, going to school with Harry Potter, or prehaps learning magic from Aahz and Skeeve at M.Y.T.H Inc.

I will confess, though, that as a kid I SO wanted to be a WolfRider Elf from ElfQuest. :^D

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. If I am making the decision solely based on hormones, though

I'd be hanging out in Herc and Xena land and making an idiot of myself as peace activist pining for the god of War, of all things. *lol*

[Addledwits]

41. It's a tie between...

(In order)
Adams' H2G2
Prachett's Discworld
Jordan's Wheel of Time

[Cheswick2.0]

45. Rivendell

[LWolf]

47. 5-way tie:

Lackey...among the Tayledras.

McCaffrey...in a weir.

Middle Earth...in Lothlorien

Ursula LeGuin...the Valley of the Kesh, in always coming home.
Or on a quiet, rural little island in earthsea.

Andre Norton: Witchworld

[dawgman]

48. george rr martin's world.

song of Ice and Fire series.

[WHAT]

49. Xanth would be phun...

nt

[Pithlet]

50. Discworld!

Although I think I'd only want to visit, not live there permanently.